Knitting, Botany, Mycology, Nature, Adventure, and Life... in no particular order.
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Fixing Pro
So it turns out I am becoming a bit of a pro at fixing mistakes in cables when I am knitting. Not the kind of pro that can actually figure out how to gran that dropped stitch and weave it back up through the complicated maneuvers, but the kind that can drop back a whole section just to grab that dropped stitch.
That’s right, I have to keep relearning my lesson about working on the afghan when at all tired. Everything seems to be cruising along fine when all of a sudden I get to a point and say, why am I 1 stitch short or why is there a stitch dangling there?
It’s a bit frustrating overall since I would rather be making continuous forward progress than this everything forward, drop the middle back, bring the middle back to where everything else is, go forward with everything a little bit more, drop back the middle… etc.
At least in this heat it gives me an excuse to go out to my favorite coffee shops to drink cold beverages and sit in the ac.
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Vacation Wrap-Up
So I have now been home from vacation for exactly 1 week. It sure doesn’t feel that long ago, and it feels like ages ago. It was a wonderful time.
We started out heading out to Northampton to pick up the last member of our ragtag crew. I had shotgun for that leg and had the Madelintosh sock yarn ready to go to start the Kai-Mei socks. (Which I did cast on in the car.)
While there we played a LOT of boardgames, swam. boated, kayaked, I found some fun things in the woods
we relaxed on the deck with a great view of the lake
people went tubing with various levels of success. Our buddy was very successful so the boat driver took evasive maneuvers to try to knock him off.
while when handsome and I went I screamed my head off while he laughed and waved. Contrary to my ascertations, we did not actually die.
We all cooked together and cleaned together and had a great time. We had amazing hosts and everyone did a combination of individual and group things. I got up early every morning to either drink tea and knit, drink coffee and knit/read, or to run and then want to die. (Vermont has these strange things called hills. Cambridge isn’t sure what they are but I think Somerville has heard of them.) This means that in addition to playing a lot of games, swimming, boating, and tubing I also got quite a bit of knitting done. From casting on in the car on Tuesday to leaving on Sunday I was almost done with the heel flap and about ready to turn the heel.
And now I am well on my way onto the foot and working the lace. I also am well on my way to wishing we had another vacation lined up. Maybe we’ll get to go the other place on Vermont, the one with no electricity! (Gas lights = knitting for me but no computers for the fella!)
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Knitting Comic Strips
I stumbled across these through a friend.
This I really should have tried on vacation, except all out kayaks were single person ones.
And here is the end of the extreme knitting montage. I may need that on something. Wish I could get the 2 strips put together on something even.
Happy Friday
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LOTR Knitting Adventure
So now that everything has reached its final destination I feel it is safe to write about my LOTR Ravelry swap. Oh boy have I been itching to!
So, for those of you unaware, I love the Lord of the Rings almost as much as I love the Hobbit. Therefore, when there way the option to participate in a swap with this theme I had to. My partner, however, put me to shame with her LOTR/Middle Earth love and lore so I had to really work to make something that would be just right.
I decided it was time to learn to sew!
Wait, sewing is not knitting… but all crafting is allowed and with my partner’s love of maps I figured a knitting needle case that looked like a parchment map of Middle Earth would be just right. This involved several stages:
- Finding fabric that I thought would both look great and that my partner would like. (Thanks for helping Kristen!)
- Making some sort of game plan with measurements for how the thing should go together.
- Getting a good image of the Middle Earth map to flip and print on iron on transfer paper. I got it here… and it is awesome.
- Figure out how to wind a friggin’ bobbin on my sewing machine. (Thanks Mom & Grandma for always keeping the book with the sewing machine!)
- Putting the whole darn thing together.
Miraculously I managed to make a plan, cut out fabric, and even wind 2 bobbins thanks to the instruction book (last copyright: 1947) with the machine. (Favorite part from the book: Machine can be plugged into either an alternating current or direct current outlet.)
I had some trouble, but in the end was very pleased with my results.
Of course, it took me a while to get all this together… and to work up my courage to actually try this whole sewing thing. Like it took my 2.5 months total to get the whole swap ready to mail, and I bought the fabric before the end of the first month. Sewing (and courage) is HARD.
So in the mean time I decided that I needed to make a second item for my partner. I mean, she mentioned several times, in several places, that her favorite thing ever is Grond. How could I let her down! She is like my LOTR Australian Sister! (Note: I have a real sister who loves LOTR and is likely to want appropriate gifts after this.) So, I downloaded some cross stitch charting software and started to scheme. And how I schemed. I was disappointed that I was using the design concept from the movie for Grond, but since there is only some descriptions of this giant metal battering ram in the shape of a wolf and filled with fire I figured I would be forgiven. So I charted out a pattern, ordered some knitpicks pallette yarns, and waited.
Finally it was time!
It was the most colors I have knit with in an intarsia to date, and it was crazy and challenging and fun! I ended up having to cut off the edges of the pattern so with a reasonable gauge it would still fit around a mug as a mug cozy (since it was WAY too big for going around wrists). After a month of hard work I ended up with:
I did eventually get the whole thing mailed out, and I think my fella was really sad to see it all go. He often would remark on the coolness of Grond and how great the map looked on the fabric. We may end up with some LOTR crafting at home, but I was just so excited to send these things off to whom I designed them for.
Now I’m just waiting to see what my sister requests, since her birthday is in a whopping 10 days (and I see her in 13 when we have a family D&D adventure for her party)! Good thing I love knitting, my family and LOTR… in a particular order that is no one’s business but mine.
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Strange Sorrow
I have another brief post I was working on, but it doesn’t feel right for now. Then again nothing feels right now. Now I have that strange post-wake feeling, the one where you’re tired, and happy to have seen family, and sad, and numb, and tired and sad. You’re trying not to really think about what is happening to the people in the middle of it all, let alone yourself. You remember old times, tell stories, make jokes, share.
Right now I am filled with all these things. I also keep thinking I wish I had knit my aunt something. I bet she would have really enjoyed having something hand knit. I should have made the time. Then I feel selfish for thinking it. Then I think it some more.
I think my brain is tired and trying to cope. I doubt tomorrow will be any better
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PAX report
So, last month I went to PAX. I went with friends, with family, and with strangers. It was very different from my first time going to PAX in Seattle a few years ago. Then I really knew nothing of gaming culture and played pretty much only Dr. Mario on occasion. I used it as a great excuse to go on vacation in Seattle with friends (which worked out great as I had lots of time on my own to explore) and did spend some time at the convention having fun and being totally overwhelmed.
This time was different. This time I knew a lot more going in, and I had some plans. I wanted to do some console gaming (and I did! played a Wii for the first time), I wanted to learn how to play D&D (which I also did, rolling a d20 for the first time and now knowing what “roll for initiative” means) and I wanted to meet up with other knitters who were also PAX attendees.
The last of those is one of my favorites. Many of us worked through the PA forums and Ravelry to spread the word. The most difficult part was that the place we chose was very crowded so not everyone found us. However, we had a great time and I met some great knitters & crocheters (or hookers if you prefer). There is a great post by Rows Red over here with more pictures of PAX. Playing D&D and other games with friends, getting a Castle Crashers t-shirt, having Will Weaton walk by (and then later take a pic with my sister while I was learning to play D&D… the irony), going to panels, and hanging with my sister really made the whole weekend awesome.
So, here are some pictures, since detailing the convention isn’t going to be interesting for anyone. However this summer I am totally going to the classic arcade museum up in NH, so feel free to join me!
The Beginning! (Gateway to PAX)
KN1TT3RS!
Saturday Night Concert
My first D&D final dungeon!
Nerd Sisters!
And in a couple weekends the DM there is going to teach our parents to play!
That’s all for now. Next big summary: St. Louis!
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Gaming meets Knitting
So, most of you now realize that I like to knit… a lot. Many of you may not realize I also like to play games. (Ok, and by many I mean any strangers that happen upon my blog since my friends and family all know I like to play games… often with them!) I like board games, card games, and even video games. (I am especially bad at video games… even worse when there are 2 analog sticks involved and I might get killed.)
Indulging my love of games is something I do less often than my handsome, XBox360 & PS3 owning fella. (He indulges his gaming, I indulge my knitting and we both sit on the sofa together.) However in 2 weekends it will be a 3 day extravaganza of gaming indulgence, and other game/comic/nerd type things. That is right my friends, the Penny Arcade Expo is coming and it will be in Boston! Yeah PAX East 2010! (I hope you already have you passes cause the 3 day ones are sold out!)
There will be panels, there will be concerts, there will be video, board, and role playing games (I’m gunna learn to play D&D and my sister will be competing for best DM in the Underdark D&D thingie) and there will be knitting!
That’s right. I said it. KNITTING!
So it turns out there are other people on Ravelry that are going to be attending PAX East. So after finding these people across several threads I have tried to organize us. I have also gone onto the PA forums and checked for interest there… and there is interest! Low and behold a PAX East/Ravelry unofficial meet-up is born!
So, if you love knitting, crochet, spinning, fiber arts, etc. (we have other crafter types coming as well, and hopefully the guy who knits with steel!) and you are going to the PAX East in 2 weekends then come on by! Right now the plan is to meet Saturday the 27th at 2.30p in the food court in the Prudential. I will make a sign, people can come and go as they please, and rumor has it that Paradise Bakery has excellent cookies. (Personally unverified cookie status.) See you there!
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Oh well
My goal was to complete a pair of cabled mittens between February 12th and 28th. I figured with about a week for each one how could I go wrong.
Well, I went wrong. It turns out I just didn’t push all that hard and often opted for not knitting instead of tired knitting. (Which is more of a problem with a complicated pattern on little needles with little yarn. Tinking sucks. I avoided it.) I am only just now ready to put the thumb stitches of the first mitten on a holder!
So I’m a Knitting Olympic non-medalist. Next time. I did manage to watch a lot of olympics, finish my shawl, and just enjoy myself overall. I also managed to not need to tear out any part of my mittens. I made it there, I participated. Not everyone gets a medal.
To make up for it, here are a few pictures of my lovely shawl. It’s the Citron pattern from Knitty! (Which I am sure I have mentioned before.) Ta-da!
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Miles to go before I sleep
I am fully immersed in the Knitting Olympics! I have been watching the actual Olympics, I have been working on my mittens, and I have been up on knitting olympics/Ravelympics forums. However I still don’t think I’m in the full swing of things. (If I were I would be much farther along on my first mitten.)
So it is the 4th full day of the Olympics (both kinds) and I am tired. Not of knitting or watching people do amazing things, actually sleepy tired. (From staying up too late watching skating and knitting.) And as I was sitting here, thinking about how it is only now the end of the workday, my favorite poem popped into my head. At least the last couple lines did: “but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” (For those not in the know: Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost) And it is true.
Here I have ahead of me my French class and then heading home, normally to bed, but probably to watch some Olympics and knit before bed. However, in a longer sense, I still have not finished my Citron shawl (only about 10 rows to go) and the deadline is Friday if I want it for NYC and I am only on round 47 of my first mitten (this includes the cuff… the main mitten is 81 rounds before the joining and I am only on round 7). The possibility of finishing these things seems impossibly far away, though the timing seems impossibly close. Yet I promised myself that I would achieve these things, and I plan to keep that promise.
Still, the whole prospect excites me, and like in the poem, I feel like it is ok to sometimes pause and take a look at where you are and the amazing sites around you, even if for me it is only my knitting or mug of tea or (currently) the snowy evening and the sound of snow shushing off the roof at work and thunking onto the ground below. It reinvigorates me for the journey ahead and the promises I have to keep. I may have miles to go before I sleep, but I’m ready to be on my way.
Note 1: You can be assured this poem will come up again in future posts so you might as well memorize it if you haven’t already. Note 2: I promise my next post will have pictures of knitting if I am going to talk about knitting. I have none with me right now though. Sorry.
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Olympic Dream
I never thought I would get to take part in the winter olympics, but it turns out 2010 is my year. I am going to officially participate in the Knitting Olympics that were founded by the Yarn Harlot. See this year’s announcement (and over 600 comments) here.
What are the Knitting Olympics? What types of events am I planning on competing in? Am I just plain nuts?
Well, you can go and read about the knitting olympics at length, as well as about the version done on Ravelry, the Ravelympics. I was interested a little, but it was really the Yarn Harlot who inspired me. The Knitting Olympics are when, during the Winter Olympics you, during the course of the games, you canst on and complete a whole project that you find difficult or challenging in some way. Be it a large project, a complicated project, new techniques, etc. More skilled knitletes are taking on things like full stranded Norwegian style sweaters and Alice Starmore cabled sweaters. On Ravelry events are names things like “Cable Cross-Country,” “Nordic Colorwork Combined,” and “Sweaterboard Cross.” But basically there are event types for anything you might want to do, and it also doesn’t need to be conceptualized in such a formal way. Some people even take on multiple projects/events… like knitting 2 sweaters!
What kind of olympian do I want to be? That took some thought. Since the Olympics start 6pm PST on the 12th and finish just before midnight PST on the 28th (almost 3am for me!) it is a compact length of time, and I am not too fast a knitter. Part of my decision was around what I have in my stash, part about patterns I have been meaning to knit, and part about choosing something challenging. It came down to socks vs. mittens. I have yet to finish a pair of adult socks, but I also have been planning on knitting the Jared Flood Druid Mittens for over a year. Both would be challenging, both give me an easy halfway mark to get to, both would be a real achievement. My event: the cabled mittens!
This I think answers the third question: I am totally nuts. (However so are hundreds, if not thousands of other knitters.) Then again, if you think about it, so are olympic athletes. think about it.
So, now I have until Friday to finish the Citron shawl I have been working on (15 rows to go! over 200 stitches per row…) so I can wear it to NYC. And I need to work in some other “training” for the Olympics. Some stretching, some rest, and the little bit of pre-olympic limbering up (read gauge-swatching so I know what size needles to use). Also, unlike an actual olympic athlete, I can drink either tea or beer while participating in my event. (Unless there are actual olympic events you can do this in…)
Also, it just so happens, that I love to watch the olympics and have had the schedule on my desktop for a few weeks now. I mean with things like luge, bobsled, the biathlon, downhill, halfpipe, hockey, speed skating, and curling who wouldn’t be excited?! I mean, my guy might not be thrilled by the amount of time I will want to watch things that are not video game related, but he’s very understanding and we’re finally going to set up the other tv, so it should be ok.
So, 9pm this Friday it all begins. The opening ceremony: The lighting of the torch OR The cast on! Who wants in?!
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Nosta-fail
I have a lovely nostepinne made of walnut wood that matches a beautiful handmade swift I got from my parents for my birthday last year. I love both. I love slowly hand winding a center pull ball of yarn and getting to feel the fiber as I create something to knit from. It’s a slower process than using a ball winder, and it has taken practice and reading instructions on the internet, but I now wind a lovely ball of of yarn. Specifically a ball of about worsted weight yarn of a manageable length.
I have discovered that when it comes to winding thinner weight yarn, either I need a lot more practice or I really need to use a ball winder or just make a plain old ball of yarn. This is what happened to my Malabrigo sock yarn, and it actually got worse before I have now started to rewind it.
This isn’t slippery with silk in it even, just happy soft merino wool. No knitting tonight for me, just slowly fixing the mess I created. Perhaps it is time to give in and put a ball winder on the list of knitting things I would like to have.
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New Year?
Technically, thanks to our man JC (Julius Cesar), January begins the new calendar year. We’ve entered the future here in 2010. While picking any arbitrary date to start fresh is perfectly ok, I think I am going to start the new year in the spring. So no big changes from me till then, and even then, very likely, no big changes.
In the mean time I have managed to make very slow progress on my Citron shawl. The pattern is a joy, the yarn is a joy, the color… you get the picture. I just haven’t been very speedy. Actually, because it is so simple in some ways I tend to pay less attention and then realize I have messed something up and have to go back! Gah! Soon (as in after participating in the 2010 MIT mystery hunt, since there is no way to knit and solve mind-crushingly difficult puzzles) I will make a renewed effort! I want to have the shawl complete, maybe by the end of February to wear to NYC, and I really need to pick up speed on the afghan again!
The rest of my time has been absorbed by holidays, friends, TV series on DVD, sleeping, Professor Layton and the Curious Village (just recently, and very addictively), and Glee! Have you not seen Glee? Oh the horror! You’ve only missed the first half of the season, which resumes in the spring. Go Catch Up! and thank me later.
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Self-Inflicted Knitting Torture
I was being so good for the Christmas holiday! I packed light and was off! My handsome fella and I did the Christmas Day run-around to see everyone. We say his Dad & crew, his Mom and family, and eventually my parents as well. He went back to spend more time with his family and I then stayed with mine.
The next morning I headed down to LI to do Christmas with the Mom’s-side clan. Sweet, a 4 hour-ish car ride to work on the lovely cabled afghan. And as we were getting everything in the car that’s when it hit me, I didn’t have the notebook with the pattern in it. Nooooooo
Turns out that the combination of weening myself down to one project, having had the notebook with another project I wanted to do some charting for, and hurried Christmas morning packing left me with a bag of knitting and no way to execute it. (There was no way I was going to wing it, not after managing the last fix when I made a mistake!)
So can you believe it is now the 28th of December and I have not knit at all starting the 24th (at least). Gadzooks! Then again, I think we all know what I will spend some time doing today!
(Hint: cabled afghan, maybe the pirate hat, winding yarn and swatching for Citron, and maybe working on the chart for the hat for a buddy of mine)
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Can’t Believe It Worked!
So back a few posts ago I showed how I had messed up on the blanket I am knitting for a couple friends who got married. I had missed a cable and was fraught on what to do. I decided to follow the good advice and instructions by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on her Yarn Harlot blog. I quickly discovered that I had to drop back more than the 5 offending stitches but the whole center panel! *Gasp of terror!*
So, I dropped and managed to pick up all the correct stitches. (I did some of this on the commuter rail where a lovely Irish gentleman that works for the New England Aquarium commented on how beautiful my work was and that it must be hard to do in dark colors compared to his sister that has won awards at home but usually knits in white.) So this is what I ended up with:
Deep breath looking at all those dropped rows
However, once I finally had all the stitches picked up from the same correct row, and once I figured out which row I was on, it really wasn’t so bad. I knit it back up over a couple of sittings so as not to get too tired and make another mistake. (Oh the horror!) and finally made it back to where I started on Saturday night while playing a role playing game with some friends that cutie is running. (Insert nerd/geek jokes at will.) I am pretty sure this again makes me my own superhero. (FYI that superhero is always either early or 80’s female empowerment Wonder Woman)
And now I’ve continued along, good as new, and have even now added the 4th ball of yarn. I think it looks pretty darn good, and I may have lost 2 weeks but I probably didn’t loose reknitting about 2400 stitches! At this point it would be fair to say I have knit about 18,200 if you don’t include mistake fixing! Whoa!
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Feeling Famous
So back when my handsome fella was living in Philly I used to frequent a magnificent yarn shop called Loop. Oh the selections! Oh the fair prices! Oh the great light, sofas, and great staff! (We visited in August, and we’ll visit again!)
So it turns out on their blog they like to post photos of projects people have knit with yarn from the store. They have a great flickr page. So I sent a few photos, and Craig asked if he could post them (to what I assumed would be the flickr page). Sure I said, and meant. Lo and behold, they wrote a blog post with my pictures!
Wow! Totally psycehd! Thanks Loop!
Later, more on that cable trouble with the afghan… with pictures!
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